Kate Moss Doesn't Care About The Daily Mail's Spiteful Bile, And Neither Should We

It seems the Daily Mail is still resorting to publishing copy smattered with ignorant hatred rather than reporting the news. Today is Kate Moss’s 40th birthday, and the paper has taken it upon themselves to adorn their front page with a mural to Kate’s innocence. The collage, featuring a mix of snaps from her career, supposedly laments the ‘disgraceful’ behaviour of the face of her 90’s lifestyle.

We all know Kate likes a party; christ, her nights out have fuelled the gossip rags for almost twenty years. Google her name and you’ll be greeted with wild tales of hotel orgies, exotic yacht getaways and of course, that infamous coke picture. It’s the Kate we’ve come to expect; the south London girl who made it big, the fairy tale career of a bad girl with a heart of gold.

But seriously; who gives a toss about her ‘bad girl’ ways? Why do we focus on that? Ms Moss is one of the most iconic faces since Twiggy. Her effortless style and demeanour is an inspiration to a generation of models, as is her seamless ability to switch between high and commercial looks. She is a British icon. Her career has out lasted hoards of contemporaries, all of whom were probably deemed more model-esque than the twiggy, boyish Moss. She is a huge influence on British fashion and will continue to be long after the seething bitterness at the Daily Mail has caused the it's offices to spontaneously combust.

It’s not as if there aren’t plenty of figures in the public eye with colourful pasts; the Rolling Stones are probably still only functioning due to being preserved by a heady mix of nicotine, whiskey and gak. Any celebrity who survived the 90s survived it with a lot of help. So why do we target Kate? Is it because she refuses to confirm to ‘lady like’ behaviour? Why is she described as ‘disgraceful’ whilst Keith Richards is ‘eccentric’ or at worst a ‘hell raiser.' This double standard of behaviour should have died out with the ladette culture Moss helped to create, but instead we continue to criticise her for not being a shrinking wallflower.

Ironically, the Daily Mail decided to include a picture taken from Moss’s recent shoot with Playboy. For anyone who hasn’t seen the pics, she looks incredible. I’m sure most women her age and mine would kill to have her confidence. Throughout her career she’s survived with little more than a blow dry and a ‘give a fuck’ attitude. Who cares about her personal life? She’s spent twenty years doing what she wants and has achieved global fame and riches because of it. She still bags magazine covers and campaigns over girls half her age, she is a tour de force that has mastered a fickle industry. When Ms Moss finally does kick the bucket she’ll probably do so with a raised finger and a fag in tow; keep talking about her ‘disgraceful’ behaviour Daily Mail, it’s just cementing her iconic legacy.